Inmates huddle in a courtyard at the Bangkok detention center where Karr spent Saturday in a holding cell. One educator in Thailand said he decidednot to hire Karr after receiving sexually explicit e-mail attachments from him. Karr told him someone else used his account to send them.

King Suphattron reads the localnewspaper in Bangkok, Thailand, with thearrest in the murder of JonBenét Ramseyatop the front page.

A Thai mother picks up her children Saturday from a school in Bangkok where Karr briefly taught. One educatorat a Catholic school vouched for Karr during an interview for a teaching job.

Bangkok, Thailand – The man who admitted to being involved in the death of JonBenet Ramsey is expected to land tonight at 9:40 Mountain time in Los Angeles after being expelled from Thailand earlier in the day.

John Mark Karr, 41, spent his final day in this Southeast Asian city in a holding cell on the upper floors of Bangkok’s immigration detention center, reading a pocket book, watching television and staying quiet, according to an immigration official Saturday.

Outside the center, reporters and camera operators camped out, waiting for any scrap of information about the enigmatic Karr.

Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of Thailand’s immigration police, confirmed Karr was to be deported today. A Thai Airways official said he had been booked on Flight 794 to Los Angeles, which would leave early today, Mountain time, for the 15 1/2 hour trip to the United States.

Karr leaves a part of the world that he reportedly fled to years ago after an arrest in California on child pornography charges. He had been working at various overseas schools.

However, one educator said he didn’t hire Karr after interviewing him and receiving e-mails with sexually explicit attachments.

The educator, who didn’t want to be identified to save his school from embarrassment, said he interviewed Karr in May for a job working at a Catholic school for girls.

During the interview, Karr startled the educator by saying, “My heart and passion is working with little girls. They are so lovable.”

Karr also insisted on working alone in the classroom.

“He puts on a good front,” the educator said. “He comes across very friendly and comfortable.”

After another teacher from a different Catholic school vouched for Karr, he almost got the job. But then the educator began receiving e-mails from Karr’s address with sexually explicit attachments. The educator told him to stop, but more kept coming. Karr said someone else had access to his account.

The educator didn’t believe him, and the job offer was taken off the table.

Another teacher reported being wary of Karr.

“I thought he was a weirdo,” said Bryce Smedley, who briefly taught at the same school with Karr. “I thought he was extremely bizarre, the way he carried himself. Something wasn’t right about him. … The students were frightened of him.”

Karr had most recently taught first- and second-graders in an English immersion program at Bangkok Christian College for boys. He also had taught for several weeks at a Catholic school for girls blocks from the city’s notorious red-light district.

Students at the school on Saturday left the school grounds while security guards kept journalists away. A mother clutched her daughter’s hand and said she had never seen Karr before. When she was shown a newspaper photo of Karr and JonBenet, she laughed nervously and ushered her daughter down the sidewalk.

At the Blooms Residence, where Karr lived on and off for most of the year, most of the residents said they didn’t have any contact with the man they saw as being quiet, well-dressed and stoic.

“I wouldn’t say hello to him because he always seemed too serious,” said Ben Lu, an animator who lived across the hallway from Karr on the ninth floor of the budget apartment complex that charges daily or monthly rent.

He remembers learning about Karr’s arrest after seeing a policeman guarding Karr’s door.

Sunisa Saenkla said he didn’t make a big impression on her.

“I never talked to him,” she said. “But he seemed nice and gentle, by the way he dressed and talked.”

“We never saw him with girls,” said Naracha Sunark, who also lived in the building. “Just with boys about 21 or 20 years old.”

Meanwhile, details about the process for transferring Karr from federal to Boulder authorities have not been finalized, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Diego.

In similar situations, federal agents would probably turn over Karr to local authorities, who would then begin extradition proceedings from California to Colorado, Mack said.

If Thai officials labeled Karr as an “undesirable,” he might not have to undergo a hearing in federal court, she added. Sonoma County prosecutors, who have the child porn charges against Karr, have already said they won’t stand in the way of Boulder officials’ efforts to bring him to Colorado.

Jeremy P. Meyer was a reporter and editorial writer with The Denver Post until 2016. He worked at a variety of weeklies in Washington state before going to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as sports writer and then copy editor. He moved to the Yakima Herald-Republic as a feature writer, then to The Gazette in Colorado Springs as news reporter before landing at The Post. He covered Aurora, the environment, K-12 education, Denver city hall and eventually moved to the editorial page as a writer and columnist.

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